Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Flavio Briatore at One Beacon Court

SELLER: FlavioBriatoreLOCATION: One Beacon Court, New York, NYPRICE: $25,000,000SIZE: 4,485 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 4.5 bathroomsDESCRIPTION: Impressive Penthouse in The Sky with over 13 ft. of floor-to-ceiling windows and 3 exposures spanning from the East River to the Chrysler Building, from Central Park to the George Washington Bridge, the Uptown-Midtown skyline: New York is at your feet in what is unanimously considered the ultimate luxury condominium in New York City!

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: This morning we read in Max Abelson's always juicy Manhattan Transfers column in the pink papered NY Observer that Italian biznessmanFlavioBriatore has leased out an apartment he owns at the Plaza in New York City for close to its eye popping $65,000 per month asking price. The renter, who reportedly requires board approval to move in, is said to be an American who works in finance which just goes to show the children that not everyone lost their shorts in the great financial fiasco of late 2008 and 2009. Records show the 3-unit, 5,850 square foot sprawler on the 8th floor–which Signore Briatore has never even laid eyes on let alone been inside–was purchased in June of 2008 for $26,771,927 and until yesterday was listed for sale with a $38,000,000 asking price.

Signore Briatore became wildly wealthy in the 1980s due to a major stake in the Benetton clothing franchise. In the late 1980s he threw wads of cash into Formula 1 racing teams which became both his hobby and his business. However, according to the FIA World Motor Sport Council (WMSC), Signore Briatore instructed his driver for the Renault F1 Team to crash during the 2008 the Singapore grand prix and as a result of a recent ruling by the WMSC, he was banned, indefinitely, from participating or even spectating the sport. Good thing for Mister Briatore he has many other bizness concerns to occupy his time including a fashion label called, not surprisingly, Billionaire Couture. Among other endeavors he also owns Cipriani's in London, a pharmaceutical company, a few holiday resorts, and he has an ownership stake in the Queens Park Rangers Football Club along with fellow billionaires Bernie Ecclestone and Lakshmi Mittal.

None the less and despite all his many successes and scandals in the bizness world, he might be best known in the sort of circles Your Mama orbits as supermodel Naomi Campbell's ex-man friend and supermodel turned media mogul Heidi Klum's deadbeat baby daddy. Shortly after turning up preggers in late 2003, Miss Klum was unceremoniously dumped by her much older I-talian loverboy. Of course, Miss Klum has gone on to marry and make babies at an astonishing rate with the singer Seal and the 59-year old Mister Briatore has married and impregnated another much younger model, 28-year old former Wonderbra mannequin Elisabetta Gregoraci. Your Mama hopes Missus Briatore has her affairs in order because if history repeats itself–as it so often does–she's going to be out on her culo before too long because Signore Briatore does not, apparently, like pregnant women.

Anyhoo, as duly noted by Mister Abelson, the palatial spread at the Plaza is not the only insanely high priced Manhattan condo Signore Briatore owns and it's not even the only Manhattan condo he currently has on the market. Records show that in September of 2005 Signore Briatore forked over $10,362,300 for a penthouse unit at the tony mixed-use tower on East 58th Street known as One Beacon Court that is also and currently listed with the butt clenching asking price of $25,000,000. According to listing information, the 53rd floor apartment measures 4,485 square feet with 4 bedrooms and 4.5 poopers. However, a quick look-see at the floorplan reveals that Signore Briatore has done a bit of remodeling since scooping up the condo which effectively reduced the bedroom count to two–with a library convertible to a third–and raised the pooper count to 5.5.

Listing information indicates the day-core was all done up by a man named Alberto Pinto who is well known for creating lavish, sophisticated, whimsical, colorful and eclectic interiors for the homes, yachts and jets of some of the world's wealthiest people. Upon entering the 53rd floor aerie, one passes through a foyer and into a entrance hall which serves as the central traffic hub for the apartment. Straight ahead is the living room that stretches more than 34 feet and all by itself encompasses a 1-bedroom apartment sized 750 square feet. Mister Pinto has wisely sprinkled the room with muted colors and low rise furniture that gives all the glory of the space over to the staggering views of Central Park and innumerable Manhattan building tops.

In the dining room, to the right of the entrance hall, Signore Pinto has paired a sinfully glossy dining room table–that undoubtedly cost as much or more as Your Mama and the Dr. Cooter's entire house–with six round backed dining room chairs boldly upholstered in a graphic zebra print fabric. Above the table hangs a contemporary light fixture in the shape of a question mark turned on its side and in front of the floor to ceiling glass wall sits a harlequin patterned boo-fay topped by a couple of tall candlesticks and a legless, carved stone horsey figurine that probably dates back to the the first Ming Dynasty or some such thing. Although the dining room day-core is about as far from the sort of thing Your Mama could tolerate living with, we can still recognize the well balanced cacophony of Mister Pinto's decorative brilliance...the light fixture with the painting, the boo-fay with the table and the zebra chairs, which also mirror the visual complexity of the painting, to give it all a twist and touch of humor that keeps the room from feeling too stuffy and serious.

To the right of the entrance hall and behind the dining room is the kitchen and breakfast area, which seems rather small for a twenty-five million smacker set up but then again, who needs counter space or a pantry if you're a multi-billionaire with a right hand man or uniformed house gurl who can pop down for take out from the legendary eatery Le Cirque, which happens to be located right up in One Beacon Court?

A short hall leads from the entrance hall to the apartment's private quarters which includes a serene library which does have a private pooper but, strangely, does not appear to have any books or even any book shelves in it. Beyond the library is the 5-star hotel room worthy second bedroom with private pooper and beyond that the master suite, a sprawling and monochromatic study in baby blue. The master bedroom, larger than many American houses, includes an entrance hall, a monstrous bedroom with floor to ceiling windows that line two walls, six closets–four of them being walk-ins, a dee-voonly well-sized dressing room with massive windows, two generously sized poopers, and a study/exercise room that contains a third bathroom because sometimes two terlits in the master bedroom is simply not enough. Of course, the study/exercise room was, we imagine, originally laid out to be a staff room and could quite easily be converted back to such should the new owner so choose.

Naturally, and as it should be for a $25,000,000 apartment, each room has been scrubbed clean, de-cluttered and staged for the listing photographs. None the less the rooms do lack a certain personal quality–it's almost like a giant suite at the Four Season. It helps Your Mama to imagine these rooms with magazines on the coffee tables, books in the library, dirty dishes in the sink and a bottle of sleeping pills on the night stand. However, the rooms are well proportioned, sensibly laid out but for the long wall shared between the master and second bedroom, and the day-core is utterly impeccable and completely correct even if not to one's personal taste.

For what it's worth, Signore Briatore is also offering the polished and pristine penthouse as a lease at $65,000 per month...furnished only.

Other owners/residents of the Cesar Pelli designed building–which includes a lobby designed by Jacques Grange, valet parking, a concierge and take out service from Le Cirque–include big boo-tayBeyoncé and her music mogul husband Jay-Z who angered residents with their idling automobiles, former General Electric CEO Jack Welch, current General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, professional baseballer Bobby Abreu and, until recently, disgraced and imprisoned attorney/Ponzi schemer Marc Dreier who owned and occupied a 34th floor unit with a massive terrace until it was sold earlier this year at auction for $8,200,000.

I absolutely agree with you regarding a needed opening between the living and dining rooms. Also, not to quibble, but the opening into the living room from the foyer is off center. I'd open the doorway up more and align it with the window opposite in order to avoid a queezy feeling every time I pass through it.

Nice apartment, though not sure about the $10 million added value in one year.

Tacky. The daycore looks like a Westin hotel. Or worse. When one sees abominations like this, one wishes the recent downturn had been much more thorough and completely wiped out many more undeserving riche.